County Board may limit Stroger’s hiring, buying powers

Commissioners propose restrictions in wake of another hiring scandal

Cook County commissioners took steps Thursday to limit the authority of board President Todd Stroger in the wake of the latest hiring scandal in the final months of his administration.

Most hiring and transfers would be frozen and Stroger would have three business days to report all allowed personnel changes and raises under a trio of measures introduced by five Democrats, including influential Finance Committee Chairman John Daley, D-Chicago.

Stroger also would have to report within three days nearly all spending on supplies, materials, equipment and professional services not already approved by commissioners.

Fellow Democrats were reacting in part to recent reports that Stroger hired Carla Oglesby, the manager of his failed re-election campaign, at $116,000 a year and then days later paid her public relations firm nearly $25,000 to promote federal relief funding for 2008 flooding.

The county inspector general's office recently pulled Oglesby's personnel file and asked for details about the payment to her public relations firm, which was in an amount just $25 below the threshold for board approval, a source said.

Commissioner Bridget Gainer, D-Chicago, said board members already were worried that Stroger would make detrimental changes before his term expires in December, when the winner of the general election for board president will be sworn in.

"It is a concern that has been magnified by what we've learned over the past couple of days," said Gainer, who added that a veto-proof majority of commissioners back the restrictions on Stroger. "We are in a time of budget constraints, and we need to make sure there isn't any additional hiring."

Stroger spokeswoman Chris Geovanis said the administration had yet to see the measures and therefore had no comment.

Stroger, politically bruised by his hiring of a former steakhouse busboy with a criminal history, placed fourth in the February primary. The "hiring of friends and family" has become a mantra of his critics.

There would be exceptions to the hiring freeze, so court-ordered hiring at the jail and juvenile detention center would not be interrupted, and the independent public health system would maintain its authority. Stroger also could hire to fill vacancies in "essential" posts.

All hiring would have to be reported to the board, like the other spending, and commissioners could reverse spending decisions they deemed inappropriate, said Commissioner Larry Suffredin, D-Evanston.